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NITED res PATENT Fries.

SILAS It. DIVINE, OF NORTH TARRYTOVZN, NEXV YORK.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 362,728, dated May 10, 1887.

Application filed Sept ember 28, 1886 To all whom it may concern.

Be it known that I, SILAS R. DIVINE, of North Tarrytown, county of XVestchester, State of New York, a citizen of the United States, have invented certain new and useful Improvements relating to Aerated Beverages, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to aerated beverages; and it consists in a method of producing aer ated beverages in which a block or piece of concreted carbonated alkali and a block or piece of concreted acid, as hereinafter set forth, in the relative proportions hereinafter specified, are immersed in a determined and proper volume of water, as hereinafter set forth, in a closed bottle or vessel, and the said blocks of concreted alkali and acid are allowed to dissolve in the water, thus causing an evolution of carbonic acid, which is absorbed by the water, as hereinafter described.

In carrying out my invention I take a vessel or bottle which is adapted to be tightly closed or corked, and I place therein a determined volume of water which is to be aerated or charged with gas. I then place in the bottle immersed in the water a block of concreted carbonated alkali and a block of concreted acid, the alkali and acid being in certain relative proportions to each other and to the volume of water, as hereinafter set forth. I then allow the alkali and acid blocks to dis solve in the water, whereupon carbonic acid is evolved; and as the dissolving of the blocks will be comparatively slow and gradual, owing to the hardness or density of their masses, the evolution of the gas will be correspondingly slow and gradual, so that the gas as it is evolved will be absorbed by the water, and thus the aeration of the water by the absorption of the gas evolved be effected. The bottle or vessel is of course during this entire operation tightly and hermetically closed.

For the purposes of my present invention sodium carbonate, or bicarbonate, or potas sium bicarbonate, or analogous carbonated alkalies, or bisulphates of the alkalies, may be employed to derive the carbonic acid. The alkali may be concreted by moistening it and then pressing it into a lump or block under severe pressure or allowing it to dry and hardenby evaporation; or a neutral adhesive substance such as gnm-arabic, sugar, or glu- Serial No. 214,783. (No s eoimens.)

cosemay be mixed with the alkali in powdered state, then moistened, and then pressed into a lump or block and allowed to dry and harden.

The acids employed are preferably such, for example, as citric, tartaric, or malic; but some inorganic acids which are innocuous to health-such as phosphoric acid or acid phosphate-may be employed; and in place of these acids the bisulphates of some alkaliessuch as the bisulphate of potash and the bisulphate of sodagiving an acid reaction may be used. These acids may be concreted into blocks by first moistening them and then pressing them.

The relative proportions in which the alkali and acid concrete blocks are used should be such as will cause the evolution of carbonicacid gas in a known volume to correspond to the capacity of the bottle or vessel in which the water is to be aerated and the pressure to be desired. For example, to aerate eight ounces of water, sixty grains of bicarbonate of soda as the alkali to about forty-five grains of citric acid may be used to producean apparently neutral solution with a pressure of from four to five atmospheres.

The proportion of alkali or acid may be increased and a water produced which will be alkaline or acid, respectively.

A carbonated alkali and an acid, both in the form of powders, have been heretofore used in generation of gas in an open or closed vessel of water; but when the alkali and acid are thus used as powders their dissolving, and hence the evolution of gas, is almost in stantaneous, and consequently in an open vessel the gas nearly all escapes and but little of it is absorbed by the water, while an attempt to close a bottle or vessel in which such powders have been placed in water results uni'avorably, the evolution of gas being so rapid. By means of my improved process for accomplishing the aeration of the water, as set forth, the vessel may be readily and conveniently closed after the introduction of the concreted blocks of alkali and acid, and the evolution of the gas will be so gradual in the closed vessel that the gas will be wholly absorbed by the water. I am thus enabled to fabricate aerated beverages without the use of elaborate and ex.- pensive apparatus.

I do not claim herein a concreted carbonated alkali and a concreted acid, as described, in individual masses, in proper relative proportions, and adapted to be inclosed in a com- 5 mon wrapper with a separating-partition .between the masses, and to be employed in fabricating an aerated beverage by the method herein shown and described, as the same is the subjectmatter and is claimed in my apro plication for Letters Patent filed in the Patent Office April 28, 1886, Serial No. 200,452.

What I claim as my invention, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

The method of producing an aerated water, which consists in immersing concreted earbonr 5 ated alkali and eoncreted acid in individual masses in relative proportions, as specified, in a determined volume of water in a closed bottle or vessel and allowing the alkali and acid to dissolve, thus evolving carbonic acid, 20 which is absorbed by the water, as set forth.

SILAS R. DIVINE.

Witnesses:

HENRY EIOHLING, A; S. FITCH. 

